Obama was a socialist? I think you misspelled liberal centrist.
Seriously, read up on his life history. Who his parents were, who his high school mentor was, what groups he joined in college, what groups he joined after college, what people propelled him into politics. Look up all the times he spoke in blatant socialist talking points and catch phrases. Look at the known socialists he appointed into positions in his administration.
He literally moved the ball halfway down the field toward single payer healthcare in one fell swoop. Not one full presidential term later, Medicare for all is a mainstream Democrat position. He was as open as he could get away with being about bis socialism.
If Dems were actually socialist Bernie would maybe be in the center of the new pack of candidates.
Bernie is still popular, and might have actually been the nominee in 2016 if not for the shenanigans the DNC pulled on behalf of Hillary. And now we have people like Warren, AOC, and a whole host of other Democrats who have mainstreamed what were his fringe positions only a couple of years ago.
I'm not saying all Dems are socialist, but that's becoming the core of their ideology, and it's happening quickly.
It is also important to discern between rhetoric that could possibly be interpreted as friendly toward socialist ideas and actions that prove to be in favor of current capitalist power structures.
I agree with you about that! In fact, that's a big part of the problem a lot of people have with Marxist ideology. They don't trust it, because even though it sounds great, it tends to be used by power hungry people to manipulate the public into letting them amass power for themselves. Just let us take all the stuff over on behalf of the people. Just let us take all this stuff over...
A world where resources and wealth are shared among everyone without human greed and corruption taking precedence would be beautiful, but humans in power tend to be greedy and corrupt.
I really hope we as a society figure it out though, because with massive job displacement due to automation and AI on the horizon, things like UBI are going to have to become a reality, and it's going to have to actually work or things are going to get really ugly.